Labor on attack on Bishop meeting with 'scumbag'

THE government has seized on Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop's Melbourne meeting with ''scumbag'' former union official Ralph Blewitt, as it seeks to discredit the Coalition's attack in the AWU slush fund affair.

With accusations continuing to flow but without the opposition producing new evidence, Ms Bishop claimed Julia Gillard had ''created the stolen vehicle that the bank robbers took to the bank to rob the bank''.

The opposition again devoted all its parliamentary questions to the issue; Ms Bishop asking every question and Tony Abbott remaining silent. But it found itself under criticism for overreaching.

Ms Bishop was forced into an embarrassing retreat after she said that Ms Gillard had not opened a file on the advice she gave on setting up the fund because she, Bruce Wilson and Mr Blewitt ''wanted to hide from the AWU the fact that an unauthorised entity was being set up to siphon funds through it for their benefit, not for the benefit of the AWU''.

Pressed on why she would seek documents from a man she did not consider trustworthy, Ms Bishop said: ''The documents would be documents of Slater & Gordon. He didn't produce any documents, so I didn't use any documents from Mr Blewitt.''

Leader of the House Anthony Albanese said Ms Bishop had accused the PM of engaging in a criminal act on the basis of her star witness being a self-confessed fraudster. Her position as deputy leader was untenable - Mr Abbott had to back her or dismiss her.

Ms Bishop had secretly met with ''a scumbag to try and bring down a Prime Minister . This says a lot about Julie Bishop's values.''

He likened it to former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull having a secret meeting with then Treasury official Godwin Grech, ''to devise a strategy to try and bring down the last Labor government'' and relying on his false information.

Mr Blewitt said: ''Julie happened to be in town … She came, shook my hand, we spoke for 10 minutes, and she left.''

In question time, Ms Gillard taunted Mr Abbott over his silence. He had never ''been shy of insults, never been shy of giving me a character assessment … If the opposition genuinely thought there were anything serious at the base of this, why wouldn't the Leader of the Opposition have the guts to get up and do it himself?''

After Ms Bishop referred to a 2010 statutory declaration by former AWU Victorian president Bob Kernohan who claimed he had been told thousands of dollars were paid illegally by Mr Wilson from union funds for Ms Gillard's house renovations, the PM said it was a matter of long-standing public record that the affidavit was drawn up by John Pasquarelli, a former adviser to Pauline Hanson.